A long time ago or what seems like a long time ago, I wrote about the new crest. I didn't like it for what it stood for and I didn't like it because it just didn't look like I thought a badge should look. Well, things are about to change as the Club are updating the brand and on that list is the badge.
They also continue to call it a crest but I'm fairly sure they're going to start calling it a badge again soon, because that is what I think we're going to end up with. You see, they should have gone back to the round badge when they were changing to this one, but they employed a firm that didn't know what they were doing and did little to no research.
The firm they are employing now, it appears, what to do their research and supporters are going to be asked to play their part.
They Club should allow supporters to upload the badges they have designed with an elevator pitch, say a 1 minute video or 100 words in test, and let the crowd vote.
The X number of badges that get the most votes from the crowd, say the top five for example, then get put in front of the judges and the judges either pick one of those badges, if there is a clear winner between them or they pick one or two to use as inspiration for the new badge. The winners, wow, the winners would love that and isn't that really getting the supporters involved?
And before I go, I just want to remind you all of why this current crest is horrible. And while this is just my opinion it's so obvious to me, it surprises me that so few see it.
First, it was cuddly. They had a lion that didn't have any claws. They updated this in 2016 I think, but only after it was pointed out to them, but it took a while. But then there is the star in the badge. The star represents the European Cup win.
For me, the star should be shown above the badge when we are playing in Europe, not all the time. And it getting displayed above the badge in Europe should be an ambition. Showing it all the time to me says we're not interested in another one. The ambition should be to have lots of stars above the badge when playing in Europe, not one in the badge for all time. Why not stars for other things we've won?
And then there is the AVFC. We're not AVFC, we're Aston Villa Football Club. I don't think I need to spend any time on this point. Absolute madness that we've had to live with this.
The current crest was poorly thought through and it's getting fixed. It's a good thing, it's about time and hopefully this time, they get it right.
And for the record, hopefully finally on this topic, they're not going to go too far wrong by using a circle, the colours claret and blue, a lion with a little bit of fight and pride about him and the words Aston Villa Football Club and maybe the year we were founded. It's really not rocket science.